Los Angeles, Calif. (April 15, 2004) -- Kari Lords flipped across the mats for the last time, to take 2nd team All-American on floor at Nationals Thursday afternoon at the UCLA Pauley Pavilion.
"It's tough to compete without your team," said BYU head coach, Brad Cattermole. "You need to have an awe-inspiring, best-of-your-life performance. It's a completely different dynamic and I think Kari handled herself well."
Lords represented the Cougars as an individual competitor after tying for first place on bars (9.900) at Regionals in Baton Rouge, La.
Lords was included with Nebraska's rotation, beginning with the floor exercise. She opened the competition aggressively, taking part in a fifth-place tie, scoring a 9.900.
"She had perfect landings and so much personality, it was wonderful," said BYU floor coach, Dawn Cattermole. "She was confident in everything and she showed great maturity."
Lords took to the vault before her first bye, scoring a 9.650. She then moved to bars scoring a 9.775 and ended the meet with a 9.750 on beam. Lords tallied an all-around score of 39.075.
"I did the best I could,"Lords said. "It's nice to finish knowing I did the very best my body could do."
Lords has had a memorable career as one of BYU's leading gymnasts. This season she set career highs of 9.800 on vault, 9.950 on bars and 39.650 in the all-around. She also set season highs of 9.975 on beam and 9.950 on floor.
She holds the top four BYU individual all-time record scores on beam, including the only perfect 10.0 on beam in BYU history. She is also tied for the team's second highest individual score on floor (9.975), after teammate Brogan Jacobsen's perfect 10.0. Lords also tied teammate Jaime Mabray for the fourth highest all-around score in BYU history (39.650).
In her final year of eligibility, Lords said she looks forward to returning to the gym next year as a fifth year to help with the team.
Preliminary results will be available after second rotation this evening. Live Stats can be found at http://www.ncaasports.com/gymnastics/womens/results.